Baghdad vicar: With attention on Gaza, Islamic State free to persecute Iraqi Christians

Anglican vicar Andrew White says more than 1,500 people in Iraq have been killed by Islamic State militants

With the world’s attention focused on Gaza, Islamist militants in Iraq can perpetrate their crimes without fear of facing justice, the Anglican vicar of Baghdad has said.

Andrew White, an Anglican canon at St George’s church in Baghdad, who has served in the war torn country for ten years, said more than 1,500 people in Iraq had been executed by Islamic State extremists.

“The Islamic State simply said we can do anything now the world is just looking at Gaza,” White said in a newsletter.

“In reality that is true. Iraq seems like old news, yet things just get worse and worse here,” wrote Fr Whit, who also directs the British-based charity, Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East.

“It is as if hell has broken out here and nobody cares, that is, apart from you, our supporters, who never leave us and keep supporting us in every way. The situation is so serious and it is very easy to feel forgotten.”

Iraq was thrown back into crisis in mid-June after thousands of armed members of the Islamic State moved from Syria through much of northern Iraq, killing both Muslims and Christians.

On June 29, the Islamist militants proclaimed a “caliphate”, an Islamic state led by a religious leader, across the territories they had captured, including the city of Mosul, the ancient Christian heartland in Iraq.

In late July, the Islamic State released a new video depicting the group carrying out mass executions and warning Iraqi soldiers and others who dare to resist that they would be rounded up and killed. Rev White and his congregation, in addition to numerous Catholic institutions, continue to provide support to tens of thousands of Christians forced to flee the northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and the surrounding Ninevah region. The Islamic State extremists told the Christians they had three options: convert, pay an Islamic tax or leave.

“Even here in Baghdad, people are terrified of what is happening around us,” White said, adding that many parishioners have left or are planning to leave Iraq’s beleaguered capital.

“The Islamic State has established their hidden cells within Baghdad, and people are seriously under threat even though they are not in the areas controlled by the Islamic State,” he added. “The number of kidnappings here has soared, and people simply do not know what is going to happen next.”

Archbishop Maroun Lahham, patriarchal vicar for Jordan in the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, pleaded for prayers for Iraq, Gaza, Syria and Libya during a special Mass in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

“The oppressors do not last. We ask God to remove the fear from the hearts of the oppressors so as to become a party that believes in peace and is capable of making peace,” Archbishop Lahham said in his homily, asking prayers for people’s survival.

The Catholic leader underscored that violence only begets more violence and said the vicious cycle in the Middle East must be broken.

“What is happening nowadays in Gaza in particular, and what is happening every day in Iraq, Syria and Libya happened in the past and now is being repeated – every time this situation is absolutely repeated without any change,” he said.

“After reaching a ceasefire, after the genocides, and after the demolition of houses the status quo will be restored, namely hostility, siege, injustice and fear in the heart of the potential murderers; the fear with the belief that in the death of others is a means to maintain security, or merely a deceptive way of reassuring people,” he warned. “They are terrified, that is why they kill.”

The archbishop said God’s help was needed to change hearts into those who seek and are committed to making peace in these troubled lands.

“But we believe in the good, almighty and just God. We pray for the survival of Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Libya,” he told the congregants gathered from Jordan’s many churches at Our Lady of Nazareth Church in Amman.

“Our prayer for the peoples of Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Libya should continue until distress, death, and siege are eliminated, so they move in the direction of peace,” he said.

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Comments

Comment Policy

At The Catholic Herald we want our articles to provoke spirited and lively debate. We also want to ensure the discussions hosted on our website are carried out in civil terms.

All commenters are therefore politely asked to ensure that their posts respond directly to points raised in the particular article or by fellow contributors, and that all responses are respectful.

la catholic state

What on earth are the idiot UN, US and Western governments doing?! Looking the other way while people are butchered….whining about Russia and blowing Ukraine and Gaza out of all proportion. They must act….or they too will be responsible. I hope France hasn’t forgotten its promise to the Christians of Iraq….but the rest of the world need to save the large population of Yazidis. Surely the ISIS could be attacked from the air.

And no doubt about it…..but there are ISIS cells in every country in Europe. And they have their silent Western supporters too.

RC

Archbishop Lahham says

“After reaching a ceasefire, after the genocides, and after the demolition of houses the status quo will be restored, namely hostility, siege, injustice and fear in the heart of the potential murderers; the fear with the belief that in the death of others is a means to maintain security, or merely a deceptive way of reassuring people,” he warned. “They are terrified, that is why they kill.”

He sounds like he is making excuses here for the killing of innocent people at the hands of ISIL – that cannot be right, surely.

‘We pray for the survival of Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Libya,’ – surely and for Israel? No?

Guest GBOP LHUA

More or less what the Holy Roman Empire, Venice, England et al did .. for centuries .. vacillate, fight internal or fraternal enemies, react, sort of, when directly involved – otherwise, talk, trade, treaty or zilch. And so, if/ when our modern ‘powers’ do choose to act, be prepared for another Constantinople (i.e. Iraq/ Afghanistan) rather than a new Jerusalem crusade (e.g. Vietnam or Korea). One might hope and pray otherwise, not least the Rosary, and to St Louis, but can we – hand on heart – aver that is likely to happen or if it does happen that it will less than another man-centred calamity (consider just who it is we must seek to intervene militarily in our name, and how they might choose to do so; dear God preserve us).

Arabs, even Christian ones, have a moral dilemma with ‘Israel’. They do belong there, and the Israeli State does, sort of, equate those who do live within its borders as genuine Israelis. Yet, as with Jerusalem, a Jewish settler or purchaser or claimant does seem, if not officially, to have the official judgements (pre-staked) in his/ her favour; and any but the most subservient Christian pastor is on the wrong side .. especially those still interested in making converts (with or without active proselytism), but currently with mild measures!

It may be abject fear that is causing him to ‘excuse’ these demonic terrorists.

James M

Only legitimate governements can “execute” anyone – what thugs & terrorists do is not execute, but murder. Those people are common murderers, like Jack the Ripper. To speak of them as though they were the lawful agents of a properly constituted state is to corrupt people’s ability to make necessary distinctions – like this nonsense of a “Scottish Government”; no such body can possibly exist unless and until Scotland is an independent sovereign state.

“But we believe in the good, almighty and just God. We pray for the survival of Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Libya,” he told the congregants gathered from Jordan’s many churches at Our Lady of Nazareth Church in Amman.

Does Iraq have to be a united state – as it is now ? Ancient Mesopotamia, to which it approximately corresponds, was a patchwork of Sumerian city states in the South, which subsequently became Babylonia; and Assyria in the North was formed out of several city-states as well. And to the East of Assyria was Elam, the forerunner of Persia. An independent Kurdish state may be just what is needed. Libya was not always one state either. Gaza was one of a league of 5 Philistine cities, even though it is located in what became the Kingdom of Judah.

There is no reason why these borders “have to” be preserved – they are neither eternal nor sacrosanct nor unchangeable. It’s the people, not the borders, that matter.

James M

For Russia to destabilise the Ukraine deserves criticism. So does complicity in the murder of 298 people. If politicians who allow abortion are guilty in the eyes of the CC, by what logic is Russian help for the enemies of the government in Kiev not equally blameworthy ?
It is sheer double standards to find fault people who do no more than contribute to providing the conditions for making abortions possible, while complaining not at all about Russian complicity in the murder of 298 people.

How can one possibly “blow” the suffering of the people of Gaza “out of proportion” ? If they were still in the womb they would be sure of sympathy. Only the unborn are sure of it. If that is not a corruption of Catholic attitudes to those in need, what is ?

James M

Christians have been killing and exploiting and maltreating Christians, and ignoring their plight, for centuries – is it really so astounding ifpeople who make no claim to act from Christian motives act no better ? People’s naivety never ceases to amaze. The wonder is that post-Christian governments behave as well as they do, seeing their predecessors have set such poor examples for so long. Colonialism & slave-trading & torture weren’t the invention of Godless Western secularists – they were widely practiced for centuries by Christians.

One St Louis IX is not much to set against a whole line of none too scrupulous and none too virtuous French Kings. His grandson Philip the Fair, who brought about the death of a Pope, & destroyed the Templars out of avarice, on trumped-up charges to which they confessed only under torture, was more typical. Most of Henry VIII’s wrongdoing was committed while he was a Catholic – and he was never a secularist. When people like him get Christian burial despite their enormities, is it surprising if people are not impressed by the supposedly exalted morality of the Church ? Joan of Arc was martyred by the Church – but the Church had no qualms about leaving Henry VIII undisturbed in his tomb. What a message that sends !

More Tea Vicar?

With the attention focussing on Gaza and not on what is happening with ISIS etc. It sounds like a pre-meditated, well-crafted, well-executed evil master-plan is being carried out by the Islamists.
Crafty or what?
Diabolical or what?

Hennergogs

Ah the old routine of a very selective pick and mix from the history books (and we all know how accurate that can be) where the acts of people acting in pursuit of secular power and secular motives are clothed in the guise of Christianity even though it is in contradiction to the teachings of the Church. So what does it prove and what is being said? That creative-writing can be used to say anything you like.

Acleron

Your own popes kept slaves, had armies and still pursue power. Stop trying to rewrite history.

la catholic state

The vicar himself is telling you! The large scale massacres that have taken place in Iraq have gone unnoticed and have not been condemned by the West (except France)….while the much fewer, unintentional civilian deaths in Gaza receive constant attention, criticism and condemnation. Don’t you think this is disproportionate?!

All deaths of innocents, including those in Gaza, Ukraine and the unborn deserve condemnation…..and so to do the mass slaughters in Iraq, but they are being given silent assent by the West. Don’t you think this is strange and evil too?!

Also….I pray that if the West continues in its evil silent stance on Iraq…..Russia will act! By the way….it was the EU that encouraged the instability in Ukraine from the beginning! No hypocrisy please!

la catholic state

It looks as if the West is supporting ISIS.

la catholic state

With what has occurred last night ie the capture of the last Christian town Qaraqosh…..it is time for the Vatican to speak out and call for action!

I can’t understand why the Italian air force hasn’t gone to help these people. What is the Vatican doing?!

Cestius

Sadly I think your analysis of history is pretty much spot on. And don’t forget Martin Luther and the Reformation being a massive distraction just at the time of Europe’s greatest danger when the Turks were advancing on Vienna. Fortunately sometimes the Church does raise up great leaders like Pope St. Pius V who organized the Holy League that defeated the Turks at Lepanto.

Cestius

I am still suspicious of the PC element in the media that refuses to see Christians as vulnerable or being oppressed. And I suspect that is the most likely reason why we don’t hear much about what is happening to Christians at the hands of ISIS, but Gaza dominates the news. Gaza ticks all the PC boxes, non-Christians, victims of “Zionists” (I’m sure there’s an anti-Semitic element in PC these days which is thinly disguised as criticism of Israel) and so on.

Hennergogs

Popes abolished slavery and consistently spoke out against it as well. I’m sure if you dip in the pick and mix you can find something unpleasant in there somewhere. It doesn’t really work though because if you look at the original post we see a reference to Joan of Arc’s unjust murder – rightly condemned by the church as a politically-motivated and illegal affair that broke nearly all of the strict rules and had plenty in common with Soviet-style show trials. Similar story with the knights and when we look at modern times it seems some things never change…

More Tea Vicar?

That’s because Christians have no oil… the West doesn’t wish to upset the Saudi apple cart, does it?

Mark

This is heartbreaking news, but sadly, no surprise. Pope Francis has spoken well, pleading for international aid for the thousands of peresecuted Christians and asking for our prayers.
We MUST pray for our gravely endangered brothers anbd sisters in Christ.
All of you catholics, silent and indifferent until now, PRAY!!!! And TALK about the ongoing genocide of Christians in Iraq and elsewhere, NO MATTER how incorrectly PC(!!!) this may be. This is no time for being a mediocre and indifferent Catholic.

la catholic state

I think it goes deeper than that. I think there is a real anti-Christian spirit alive in our post-Christian secular establishments.

Goldsmithexile1960 .

Has the penny finally dropped!?
The reason folk have a job accepting this truth, is because of the damnable humanist ideology that tells us, deceitfully, that mankind is intrinsically good, and we are all “bruzzerse.”
You would be shocked to discover the relationship between secular aetheism, and occultic practises. Those elite folk that think they govern the world HATE Jesus, God, and the Bible with an as yet publically undisclosed intensity. In the meantime they fully intend to try to coerce everyone else into loathing those key foundational aspects of a moral and decent civilisation just as much as they themselves do. That is why 1/ They seek the elimination of Israel and 2/ Elimination of Christianity

Goldsmithexile1960 .

Yes, in a similar way that sanballat and tobiah attempted to undermine and demoralise Jewish courage when they planned to rebuild the city wall. Al jazeera do the same today (pscyhological warfare) That and a peculiarly destructive and narcissistic tendency on the part of the western political elites to refuse, point blank, to see bad in anything foreign…

Goldsmithexile1960 .

“And they have their silent Western supporters too”.

Yes, in many of the town halls in muslim dominated political heartlands, even glasgow?? I am surprised that great opportunist g galloway hasnt gone into apoplectic verbal overdrive….hmmmm, or k livingstone either……what gives?

Kudos to the Nun in London that ripped down the jihadi flag, she seems like a Gideon. Not everyone can do that

la catholic state

I agree with you. Our secular post-Christian leaders are anti-Christian. Notice how Cameron couldn’t bring himself to utter the word ‘Christian’ in his speech on aid to Iraq. Disgusting really.

Hamble’s Evil Twin

Sky News wasn’t much better. I mean, what’s wrong with the word ‘Christian’, for crying out loud?!?!?! A Zoroastrian minority was mentioned – fair enough – but I heard the word ‘Christian’ only once!
Besides, on the one hand, Obama was effectively shamed into action i.e. air strikes. On the other, it is reported that it is only to protect US lives in the Kurdish-controlled areas of Iraq. No doubt, to dampen down whatever conscience he has left after Bengazi!

fahamjp

100 years ago, during WW1, 2 million Christian Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks were killed by the Turks. After the war, the Greeks resettled in Greece and what was left of the Armenian nation became part of the Soviet Union. The Assyrian Christians attempted to form their own nation in northern Iraq but the British and League of Nations were unwilling to support them. Since the US invasion in 2003 the Assyrian Chaldean Christians have been attempting to form their own autonomous region in their traditional homeland in the Nineveh plains east of Mosul and the Tigris River. They were just expelled from this region last week by ISIS. The Kurds have also been attempting to create their own independent nation since 2003. Both the Kurds and Assyrian Chaldean Christians have experienced only opposition from both the Bush and Obama administration. Perhaps our government will finally wake up and realize that the only effective way for these people to avoid genocide is for the creation of their own independent nations, where they can escape the endless carnage in Iraq.